Heart Lock

Kingdom Hearts Psp donwload

Yes, yes, I know we all desire Kingdom Hearts III for PlayStation 3 But in the meantime, there's a pretty solid and entertaining installment on PSP called Kingdom Hearts: Birth by Sleep. With three separate stories, which greatly enhances up longevity and overall appeal, a satisfactory and adequate deep combat mechanic and patented flair achieved by combining the worlds of Disney and Final Fantasy, this one is well worth your time. The only disappointing part of the whole production is that Square-Enix can not seem to shake the past downfalls and mistakes, and I kept thinking about our surroundings should have exhibited more lush detail. I know the PSP is a bit more limited, but I've seen examples of incredibly detailed ('cough' God of War 'cough'), so it is not impossible.

Kingdom Hearts Psp donwload

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This leads me to the graphics that are loaded with the attractive colors and design fans of the franchise loves. To their credit, the developers bring the highlights and give us a really engaging the world, thanks to spectacular special effects and cut-scenes. The character modeling is superb, too, so you spend most of your time marveling at the beauty inherent in the birth of hibernation. But there will be times when you can not help noticing how desolate some of the backgrounds really are, they lack a certain liveliness, what kind of moves the focus to fighting. These are much more appealing from a visual point of view, and while I must reiterate that the Kingdom Hearts world is a treat, I have to be firm about the lack of environmental depth. Maybe it would not be so obvious if everything else was not so wonderfully energetic.

Backed by amazing voices - Leonard Nimoy is the man - and crisp, accurate sound, the game delivers in the sound category. Old records in the series has boasted similar pluses, voiceover voices always consist of a who's who of Hollywood talent to help the dialogue succeed throughout. The effects can be somewhat repetitive, though, and I wish they had built a few more original music compositions for this new adventure. I think it's nice to know that "hey, I play Kingdom Hearts", but that nostalgic recognition declines over time. Nevertheless, I take nothing away from the soundtrack, which is pretty great from top to bottom. It is not the most diverse selection of the world, but it still fits, and the effects are plenty efficient. When we step back and check out the big sound picture, we have to be satisfied.

This is actually a prequel, so the events of the birth of sleep take place before the original Kingdom Hearts. From the start, you choose between Terra, Ventus, and Aqua, all three wield a keyblade and everyone of them has their own unique history, and as I said in the intro, this is one of the primary reasons to buy and enjoy the game. All cares about longevity ie verve, and have three complete and satisfactory plot lines to see is an immediate bonus. You will move through the mysterious world, trying to take down unserved and uncover a number of pressing mysteries. The pacing of this adventure is good because it really feels like the action / RPG is it: between retail management, exploration, and mastering the deep battle system, fans will get almost exactly what they want and what they deserve. It all works quite well in spite of one or two major drawbacks, which I'll get to in a minute.

 

Beside the story, which I won't spoil, the emphasis remains fixed on the fighting. Before heading out, though, that role-playing mentality needs to come into play- you must buy and equip what you need, and make sure you've got a healthy assortment of items. When you enter battle, you give orders to your character via the d-pad, which flows into a series of current and already-executed commands. Once selected, that command will move over and you'll shift to the next on the list. This means the action always remains fast, and you never feel outmatched due to overly intricate and inaccessible control. There is, however, a level of depth that might seem a little overwhelming at first, and this involves the leveling up and combination of certain special commands. It can be complicated but hey, do you want the RPG part or not?

Then you have to toss in abilities called "Shotlocks" and the meter that fills up as you unleash combos on your foes. The latter will let particular characters enter into a battle style that could prove to be immensely effective; the former are best reserved for large groups of enemies. Then there are D-Links, which lets one character adopt the traits/skills of another for a brief period. This is quite the detailed combat setup and if you're willing to dive in and learn every facet of it, you will be justly rewarded. That being said, the combat trips and stumbles due to an imperfect control setup that includes a problematic camera. This is one of those issues that just never seems to get fixed in KH; when backed into a corner or fighting in a tight spot, the camera wacks out and it's hard to find your target. And it still wants to target a breakable environmental object rather than an enemy…can't tell you how frustrating that is.

I'm also not the biggest fan of the mini-games and again, that isn't anything new. I do admit that these are better designed and more important than in past iterations, but I'm still not sure they need to be in the game. But it's the adventure itself that matters and in this respect, the gameplay is greater than the sum of its parts. One can get past the iffy camera and lock-on issues because for the majority of the time, fighting and exploring is fun. You always want to keep playing, and that's an undeniable positive trait. The story unfolds nicely, the voice acting is awesome, the flashy and crazy deep combat mechanic can be immensely rewarding, and the bottom line is if you enjoyed other KH games, you'll like this one. You might even like the multiplayer, where you fight against other players (or battle oncoming waves of foes) in the Mirage Arena. This can be quite entertaining as well, even if it feels a little bare.

Kingdom Hearts: Birth by Sleep is a game that sticks to its roots and expands upon a winning formula. It still can't quite put long-standing problems to rest (or sleep, whatever) but it presents fans with a cohesive, satisfying adventure and in truth, there are three of them.

The Good: Classic and appreciated KH atmosphere. Super in-depth and fulfilling battle system(s). Solid story pacing and excellent voice acting. Great character modeling. Three separate and complete storylines greatly enhance longevity.

The Bad: Camera can be problematic. Lock-on system fails too often. Lack of environmental luster. Questionable mini-games.

The Ugly: If the camera gets jammed up, the visual and gameplay result ain't pretty.

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The Good: Classic and appreciated KH atmosphere. Super in-depth and fulfilling battle system(s). Solid story pacing and excellent voice acting. Great character modeling. Three separate and complete storylines greatly enhance longevity.

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If fear is the lock, is laughter the key to your heart?

If fear were the 'lock' then 'courage' was supposed to be the key of heart. But to me, when it's HEART, only hatred could be a lock-type something & love is the only Master Key to unlock.

Billie Holiday ♫ I'm Gonna Lock My Heart (Madison Park Remix)

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This entry was posted on Thursday, February 26th, 2009 at 8:32 am and is filed under scrapbooking. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.